US election: A tale of two battlegrounds
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 27 October 2020
⏱️ 34 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
As election day approaches, the campaigning in key battleground states has intensified. Florida and Pennsylvania are just two of a handful of states that could play a major role in deciding who will lead for the next four years. From the Cuban-American anti-socialists, to the pro-fracking white working classes: who are the target voters who will influence the outcome on election night?
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Guests:
Sarah Baxter, American Diary, The Sunday Times.
Josh Glancy, Washington Bureau Chief, The Sunday Times.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is a passenger announcement. You can now book your train on Uber and get 10% back in credits to spend on Uber eats. |
| 0:11.0 | So you can order your own fries instead of eating everyone else's. |
| 0:15.0 | Trains, now on Uber. T's and C's apply. |
| 0:20.0 | Check the Uber app. The Electoral College System The electoral college system can seem like the most baffling quirk of US elections. |
| 0:29.0 | Pennsylvania went and did what they always did. |
| 0:31.0 | They trotted along to the polls. |
| 0:32.0 | And then on election |
| 0:33.7 | night they were astounded to find that Trump had won the state. This year |
| 0:39.9 | yet again the next president of the United States is likely to be chosen by a small clutch of |
| 0:46.0 | voters in a few key battleground states. |
| 0:49.6 | If you're Donald Trump, he has to win Florida. |
| 0:51.6 | There's basically no path to the presidency for him without it. |
| 0:54.7 | You're listening to stories of our times from the Times and the Sunday Times. I'm Manveen Rana. Today, bellwethers and heartbreakers. |
| 1:05.0 | Pennsylvania and Florida gear sure she registered me when I was born |
| 1:25.9 | in Stretum, South London at the American Embassy. |
| 1:29.2 | That's Sarah Baxter. |
| 1:30.9 | She writes the American diary for the Sunday Times and you might know her as the |
| 1:34.8 | former deputy editor of the paper. I'm also a South Londoner by birth. What you might not know about her is that she's also a US citizen. |
| 1:47.0 | I've always been a citizen of America, but I didn't vote until I came to New York as New York correspondent in 2001 and within two |
| 1:57.5 | months of my arrival 9-11 happened and I found myself at the uncomfortably close to the Twin Towers and had to run for my life when they fell. |
| 2:10.0 | And I found it such a deeply bonding experience with America that I felt much, much more engaged with the land of my mother's birth. |
| 2:20.0 | Since that pivotal moment, Sarah has been voting in every US election, |
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